Self laminating wristbands have become widely available for medical applications and have achieved great commercial success principally through the inventive efforts of the assignee of the present invention. Examples of the several different embodiments of the self laminating wristbands that have received patents and which are experiencing great commercial success may be found in one or more of the following US patents, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,933,993; 6,438,881; 7,017,293; and 7,222,448.
These self laminating wristbands are formed in part with a clamshell of laminating layers which are hinged together so that after separation of the wristband from the carrier the two clamshell halves are folded over to laminate an imaging portion. In almost all of these embodiments, the clamshells are hinged along their long dimension although at least one embodiment depicts the clamshell hinged at their ends. With this arrangement, the imaging area which is adhered to one of the clamshell halves is positioned to be readily laminated by merely folding over the two halves along the hinge joining them. This provides a quick and easy method for “assembling” or laminating the wristband after its separation from the carrier, and then applying it to the patient's wrist. Many millions of these design wristbands, in a number of different formats and arrangements, have been sold by the assignee, and customers/users have used them as they have found them to be ideally suited to their many applications.
In its continuing efforts to improve and develop alternate design wristbands, the inventor herein has developed for the assignee a new inventive design wrap around self laminating wristband which is elegantly simple, perhaps even simpler than the previous clamshell design, and which is arguably also faster to separate from the carrier and apply to the patient's wrist. In essence, this new invention comprises a slightly longer single width, substantially transparent strap having an imaging end for carrying the printed image and an opposite or “window” end for overlying the imaging end to laminate it. In other words, this design departs from the clamshell arrangement the assignee has commercialized to great success and instead provides a single strap which wraps around the patient's wrist with the opposite end providing a lay over see-through laminate or window area which is affixed in one of several alternative manners to attach the wristband to the wearer's wrist. While the entire strap may be provided as substantially transparent, as an alternative a decorative design may obscure a portion of the strap length to actually form a window through which the printed image may be viewed. In that embodiment, the window is preferably provided in a length appreciably longer than the imaging area to allow for adjustability in the amount of overlap, and thus wristband length, while ensuring that the imaging area is visible therethrough. While a “see-through” laminate is preferred, it is also possible that one or more cutouts could be provided to enhance the readability of a bar code, for example, or for any other purpose. Also, in some embodiments, the imaging area end may preferably be slightly smaller in width so that the strap can be wrapped around the wrist and the window end may be slightly misaligned or even be “loose” but yet completely cover and laminate the imaging area with its surface being entirely visible through the window. Yet another alternative is for the wristband to have a curved, contoured or curvilinear edge along at least a portion of at least one of its sides, maybe even to the extreme of an hourglass or “wasp-waisted” band formed along both edges of both sides, or to have contoured sides as exemplified by the disclosure found in co-pending application Ser. No. 11/553,873 filed Oct. 27, 2006, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference
A number of alternate arrangements for the “wraparound” wristband of the present invention have been conceived of. For example, instead of providing a two ply form, a single ply laminate strap can be provided separately from a printed face stock label and the two assembled by adhering the label to the laminate strap before wrapping the strap around the patient's wrist. The label can be provided as self adhering and separate patches or stripes of adhesive be provided on the laminate strap, either to completely enclose the label as the wristband is secured or merely to attach the “wrapped” end to the opposite end so that while the label is captured between two outer layers of laminate it is not totally encapsulated by the overlying laminate strap. And, the adhesive may be applied on either side of the label so that the laminate strap may have its end either fixed or loose. For convenience, the word “laminate” or “laminating” is used herein to refer to an arrangement where two layers of laminate capture an imaging area therebetween, but not necessarily encapsulate it. In some instances the laminate layers may be adhered together to completely encapsulate the imaging area, as in most of the other self laminating wristband designs disclosed in the assignee's other patents. In other instances, however, the sides or the ends or even the sides and ends of the laminate overlay may not be affixed in place. For purposes of this disclosure, these arrangements shall also be considered as satisfying the “laminate” or “laminating” definition.
As this design wristband requires a “wrapping around” or overlap of one end over the other, the length of the wristband is preferably slightly longer than a corresponding “finished length” self laminating wristband of the clamshell design. This is not an issue should the wristband be intended for smaller wrists, such as for pediatric applications, and this design may be conveniently die cut into a standard 8½×11 inch sheet for laser printer processing. This design is also adaptable for adult sized wristbands for laser printing in a slightly longer sheet, such as legal size or 8½×14 inches. Nor is this an issue when the wristband business forms are provided in a continuous strip, either fan fold or roll, such as would be intended for thermal printing applications. As the most common format for wristbands is in combination with a plurality of labels, this design wristband is uniquely suited for thermal printers where the overall width of the form is limited by the throat size of the printer. Due to it being a single width, a wristband of the present invention would occupy the top half of a nominal two inch (2″) wide form and the bottom half would be occupied by a series of labels. Thus, a self laminating, adult sized, self laminating wristband along with a plurality of labels are conveniently provided in a continuous strip or roll format in two inch width suitable for processing by most thermal printers. As explained above, this design is versatile and suited to many formats.
The “stock” from which this design wristband would preferably be provided in would be the common two ply stock comprised of a face or imaging ply adhered with a pattern adhesive to a backing or laminate ply. The wristband would then be die cut into both of the face ply and the laminate ply: the imaging area die cut into the face ply and the strap die cut into the laminate ply. Depending on the pattern of the adhesive, for example should there be no adhesive joining the length of the strap and window to the face ply, the die cut could be an “interrupted” die cut with for example nicks in the die which would leave behind “ties” of both or at least one ply to hold at least the laminate strap in place before desired removal and use of the wristband. Then, the user would tear the strap loose along the interrupted die cut after printing. A “surround” of adhesive would preferably be applied around the image area, and would be exposed after separation of the wristband from the carrier so that it would adhere to the portion of the window end overlying the imaging area to “laminate” it by substantially encapsulating it in this embodiment.
As an alternate in the embodiments disclosed herein, instead of providing a label or face stock ply, the imaging area may be formed for a thermal printer version by applying an opaque white base coat followed by a thermal active coating and for increased durability a protective top coating if desired to a single laminate ply, either in the desired area or across the entire ply as determined by cost, raw stock, forming machine capabilities, etc. The coating material provided may be any chosen from a group of suitable materials chosen as would be known by those of ordinary skill in the art. Examples are Environmental Inks & Coatings EH012552 Direct Thermal coating, EC007094 Opaque white base coat and Organic Dyestuffs Corporation ORCO Black ODB-2 Leuco-dye thermal coat. This “stock” material could be used to form single wristband sheetlets, multiple wristband sheets, “combo” forms with labels in sheet format, and thermal printer formats comprising continuous strips in fan fold or roll format as well as any other format as exemplified in the various other patent filings owned by the assignee.
Yet another alternate embodiment incorporates mechanical fasteners to close the wristband about the wearer's wrist. One such example is a snap closure which would be located at each side of the “wrapped end” and two series of holes located along the strap edges inboard of the imaging area, one of which each snap closure would fasten to and join the strap ends. The length of the finished wristband would thus be variable depending on which pair of holes the snap closures were fastened to. In this embodiment, the laminate would overlie the imaging area but need not be sealed on any edge. As an alternative to including the mechanical fastener in the wristband, they may also be provided separately with the wristband having pre-punched holes or other areas of weakness to accommodate the assembly of the mechanical fastener after the wristband may be processed and printed.
While the principal advantages and features of the present invention have been briefly explained above, a fuller understanding may be gained by referring to the drawings and description of the preferred embodiments which follow.